Coupling of Ligands to the Liposome Surface by Click Chemistry.

Click chemistry represents a new bioconjugation strategy that can be used to conveniently attach various ligands to the surface of preformed liposomes. This efficient and chemoselective reaction involves a Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition which can be performed under mild experimental conditions in aqueous media. Here we describe the application of a model click reaction to the conjugation, in a single step, of unprotected α-1-thiomannosyl ligands, functionalized with an azide group, to liposomes containing a terminal alkyne-functionalized lipid anchor. Excellent coupling yields have been obtained in the presence of bathophenanthroline disulfonate, a water soluble copper-ion chelator, acting as a catalyst. No vesicle leakage is triggered by this conjugation reaction and the coupled mannose ligands are exposed at the surface of the liposomes. The major limitation of Cu(I)-catalyzed click reactions is that this conjugation is restricted to liposomes made of saturated (phospho)lipids. To circumvent that constraint, an example of alternative copper-free azide-alkyne click reaction has been developed. Molecular tools and results are presented here.

Insights into the cellular trafficking of splice redirecting oligonucleotides complexed with chemically modified cell-penetrating peptides.

Conjugates of cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) and splice redirecting oligonucleotides (ON) display clinical potential as attested by in vivo experimentation in murine models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. However, micromolar concentrations of these conjugates are required to obtain biologically relevant responses as a consequence of extensive endosomal sequestration following endocytosis. Recent work from our group has demonstrated that appending stearic acid to CPPs increases their efficiency and that the inclusion of pH titrable entities leads to further improvement. Moreover, these modified CPPs form non covalent complexes with charged ON analogs or siRNAs, which allows decreasing the concentrations of ONs by nearly one log. These modified CPPs and the parent peptides have been compared here in the same in vitro model in terms of cell uptake, trafficking and splicing redirection activity. The increased splicing redirection activity of our modified CPPs cannot be explained by differences in cell uptake but rather by their enhanced ability to escape from endocytic vesicles. Accordingly, a clear correlation between membrane destabilizing activity and splicing redirection was observed using a liposome leakage assay. Studies of cellular trafficking for the most active PF6:ON complexes indicate uptake by clathrin-mediated endocytosis using either FACS cell uptake or a splicing redirection functional assay. Acidification of intracellular vesicles and membrane potential were found important for splicing redirection but not for cell uptake. These results do confirm that the increased potency of PF6:ON complexes is not due to the use of a non endocytic route of cell internalization as proposed for some CPPs.

Conjugation of ligands to the surface of preformed liposomes by click chemistry.

Click chemistry represents a new bioconjugation strategy that can be used to conveniently attach various ligands to the surface of preformed liposomes. This efficient and chemoselective reaction involves a Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, which can be performed under mild experimental conditions in aqueous media. Here, we describe the application of a model click reaction to the conjugation, in a single step of unprotected alpha-1-thiomannosyl ligands, functionalized with an azide group to liposomes containing a terminal alkyne-functionalized lipid anchor. Excellent coupling yields were obtained in the presence of bathophenanthrolinedisulphonate, a water soluble copper-ion chelator, acting as a catalyst. No vesicle leakage was triggered by this conjugation reaction and the coupled mannose ligands were exposed at the surface of the liposomes. The major limitation of Cu(I)-catalyzed click reactions is that this conjugation is restricted to liposomes made of saturated (phospho)lipids. Efficient copper-free azide-alkyne click reactions are, however, being developed, which should alleviate this constraint in the future.

A peptide-based dendrimer that enhances the splice-redirecting activity of PNA conjugates in cells.

The full therapeutic potential of oligonucleotide (ON)-based agents has been hampered by cellular delivery challenges. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) represent promising delivery vectors for nucleic acids, and their potential has recently been evaluated using a functional splicing redirection assay, which capitalizes on the nuclear delivery of splice-correcting steric-block ON analogues such as peptide nucleic acids (PNA). Despite encouraging in vitro and in vivo data with arginine-rich CPP-steric block conjugates, mechanistic studies have shown that entrapment within the endosome/lysosome compartment after endocytosis remains a limiting factor. Previous work from our group has shown that CPP oligomerization greatly improves cellular delivery and increases transfection of plasmid DNA. We now report the chemical synthesis and the evaluation of multivalent CPP-PNA constructs incorporating monomeric (p53(mono)) and dendrimer-like tetrameric (p53(tet)) forms of the p53 tetramerization domain containing peptide, a 10 arginine CPP domain (R10), and a splice redirecting PNA (PNA705). These CPP-PNA conjugates were termed R10p53(tet)-PNA705 and R10p53(mono)-PNA705, referring to their oligomerization state. The present study demonstrates that the splicing redirection efficiency of PNA705 is much greater in the context of the tetrameric R10p53(tet)-PNA705 construct than for the monomeric and occurs at nanomolar concentrations, demonstrating that multivalency is an important factor in delivering PNA into cells.